CURRENT MISSION

a little bit of fun, a little bit of revolution

ABOUT ME

I have lived in Toronto since Sept 05 - moved from Vancouver to go to grad school. I have finished my MA in communications & cultre where I studied Franz Fanon, Raymond Williams and community radio. Now I am a glorified bookkeeper working at CUPE 3903 up at York University. I also work part time at the Media Action Research Group where I do activist based research on activist media. I am really into community radio - but am taking a break. I currently co-edit an anti-capitalist journal called Upping the Anti (check it out at uppingtheanti.org). So, I keep busy. I like thinking, talking and writing about geeky political stuff (normally in the marxist, anti-racist, feminist vein). Community radio is my life. I am told i am funny and generous. I try to read as much as possible, and am one of those people that read theory and enjoy it. My favorite place to visit is Cuba. mix cd's make my day - and I would like to make you one if I feel you deserve it. i feel more fulfilled when i have friends and penpals all over the world, which is why couchsurfing is awesome. i love meeting travelers and learning how to swear in foreign languages. i have insomnia on bad days. on good days, i sleep like there's no tomorrow. i don't like conservatives or fascists. i can tolerate social democrats, but you'll have to make a case for yourself.

PHILOSOPHY

we all die alone.
monogamy is counter-revolutionary.

Why I’m on Couchsurfing

HOW I PARTICIPATE IN COUCHSURFING

I mostly host, but when I travel I will send out requests for coffee and hang outs.

COUCHSURFING EXPERIENCE

Have been using couchsurfing for a few years, sometimes i get a lot of requests and sometimes it is dead for a while. But have hosted a lot of folks and have actually become good friends with a few of them.

I have been hosted in Italy and met up with couchsurfers in Copenhagen. All in all, it's a great way to meet people when walking up to strangers and asking for directions doesn't work.

I have had a few bad experiences with last minute requests from people with minimal information on their profile. So just for safety, I tend to give positive responses to people with a bit more beef in their profiles.

Interests

music, shuffling my feet to music, community radio, Cuba, politics, resistance, revolutionary organizing, letter-writing, general writing, reading celebrity gossip, sleeping in, procrastinating, all-you-can-eat sushi, bike rides, receiving scratchy scratchy, mix-cds, trying to write a thesis

• writing
• coffee
• walking
• politics
• reading
• traveling
• socializing
• music
• cycling
• communications
• languages

Music, Movies, and Books

right now: Daughter, Phosphorescent, Baths, Santigold, Youth Lagoon, Beach House, Beirut, Bonnie Prince Billy, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Blondie, The Smiths, the Cure, the Knife, Refused, Talib Kweli, Grizzly Bear, Panda Bear, Fugazi, nomeansno, Bloc Party, Dead Prez, The Coup, The Smiths, Sleater-Kinney, Cat Power, Iron and Wine, M.I.A., Holy Fuck, LCD Soundsystem, Built to Spill, Working for a Nuclear Free City, Nina Nastasia, Diplo, Gossip, Jens Lekman, Fever Ray, Love is All, Peaches, MGMT.

Check out what I listen to at: last.fm/user/shmeen

books: Juno Diaz, Blankets by Craig Thompson, amiri baraka, bell hooks, god of small things (arundhati roy), culture and imperialism (edward said), history and class consciousness (lukacs), black skin, white masks (Fanon), Living My Life (Emma Goldman), malcolm x, persepolis, History Will Absolve Me (Fidel Castro), Outlaw Woman (Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz), Assata Shakur, a variety of graphic novels

Movies: The Savages, Darjeeling Limited, eternal sunshine of the spotless mind, The Life Aquatic, Bladerunner, anything bollywood, shortbus, pan's labyrinth, the second hell boy movie.

One Amazing Thing I’ve Done

i have met crispin glover twice. I have met assata shakur once. I have stood twenty feet in front of fidel castro.

Countries I’ve Visited

Austria, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, Syrian Arab Republic, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, United Kingdom, United States

Countries I’ve Lived In

Canada, Pakistan

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